Wordless Wednesday - Tonight's Dessert

Butterflies

We met our friends Scott and Holly and their girls, Reese and Ryleigh at the Butterfly House at Texas Discovery Gardens last weekend.  None of us had been before, and it didn't disappoint.  The Butterfly House was small but beautiful.  We were told that there were about 500 butterflies in there.  I believe it because they were everywhere.  We then went outside to the gardens.  I had no idea that the property was so large.  The girls had a good time running, climbing and splashing in the fountain.  I think they would've swam in there if it had been allowed.  We loved it and enjoyed spending time with friends!

Butterfly House

Ready to see some butterflies

There they are...

  

Friend Making Monday: 3 Things

So...this was supposed to be for Monday, but I'm gonna cut myself some slack and just go with it on Wednesday.

 

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section over at: All The Weigh so everyone can see your FMM questions and answers. Please add your links over there too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Three Things

1. Three of your favorite movies:
- Dirty Dancing
- Roman Holiday (or pretty much any other Audrey Hepburn movie)
- Knocked Up (This is hilarious to watch when you're pregnant, so I'm loving it right now.)

2. Three of your favorite things to drink:
- water (Call me crazy, but I drink more water than anything else)
- Sprite
- lemonade (I've been drinking a ton of this since I got pregnant.)

3. Three of your favorite songs:
- I Do It Anyway by Martina McBride
- Americano by Brian Setzer Orchestra (mine and Wesley's driving music as teenagers)
- Every Josh Groban song there is.

4. Three people who have recently been a positive influence on your life (outside of your family):
- My friend Amy (she always has a smile for everyone)
- My friend Dana (so encouraging and helpful to me with this pregnancy!)
- My friend Holly R. (I love having a friend in my neighborhood!)

5. Three things you to do keep yourself entertained:
- Play with Mia (My sweet girl)
- Reading books (my favorite past time)
- Poke my belly to make Quinn start wiggling (Love that boy!)

6. Three things you’re attracted to in the opposite sex:
- Kind eyes
- Making me laugh
- Sweet smile

7. Three things you love about yourself:
- I try to avoid drama.
- Usually have a positive attitude
- Try to put my family first.

8. The last three people who text messaged you:
- Wes (to tell me he forgot to take his dinner to work...oops)
- Holly R. (sent me a picture of Mia and Reese from our trip to the Butterfly House on Sunday)
- Darvey (to show me a picture of his and Kenda's Hello Kitty toaster because he knew that Mia would love it)

9. Three things you’re looking forward to this week:
- Mia is going to her friend's birthday pool party.
- Hanging out with friends to celebrate Memorial Day
- Working on Quinn's nursery

10. Three wishes specifically for yourself…What are they? (Be selfish, and be honest.)
- That I will be able to lose this baby weight after Quinn is born.
- A date night with Wesley (because those are really very rare, usually just on our anniversary.  We need to do better than that!)
- To have a relatively easy birth with Quinn.  Practical?  Probably not, but I can dream.  Haha!

11. Three of your favorite quotes:
- True to Your word, You let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.  Psalm 23:3
- Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.  Audrey Hepburn - Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.  John Wayne

12. Three of your biggest fears:
- That something will happen to Wes.  We've been talking about retirement and life insurance lately.  It's unsettling to think of him not being at my side.
- That something will happen to one of the kids.
- That one of us would lose our jobs due to this (still) bad economy.

13. Three of your favorite TV shows:
- Hart of Dixie
- Family Feud
- La Femme Nikita (the version from the 90s w/ Peta Wilson.  I have them on DVD. Love!!)

14. Three of your favorite things to purchase when you’re shopping.
- clothes for the kids
- scrapbooking supplies
- things for the house

15. Three things that you enjoyed last week:
- Going to the Butterfly House and Texas Discovery Gardens with our friends.
- Working on Quinn's room (this item shows up a lot on this survey!)
- Spending time with Wes and Mia.

16. Three things that you always have in your bag or close to you if you’re not a purse kind of person.
- Cell phone
- Aquafor (for my lips-best moisturizer ever)
- Kleenex (I live in Texas.  I feel like I have allergy issues year-round.)

17. Three types of food that you wouldn’t want to give up.
- Chips and queso
- Chocolate milkshakes
- Pepperoni Pizza

18. Three things you do to enjoy burning calories:
- Playing with Mia.  That girl can wear me out!
- Swimming - Don't get to do this one very often at all. 
- Running - This is just a wish.  I really wish I liked running.

19. Three things you dislike about blogging:
- Waiting for all of the pictures to download.
- Having to censor some of our stories due to potential weirdos learning too much about our family.
- That I don't post as often as I'd like to and then I feel like I'm slacking.

20. Three ways blogging has changed your life:
- I've learned that the blogging community is full of amazing people who's stories and just every day life can be uplifting and supportive.
- It has shown me the importance of writing down what's going on in our lives.  More than once I've read back over something that happened a year or two ago and thought, "I'm so, so, so glad that I wrote that down.  I don't want to forget!"
- I feel a degree of satisfaction that in 10 or 20 years, my kids will know what our lives were like back when they were too young to remember.  These early years are precious to me, and I want them to have those memories preserved somewhere.

Now it’s your turn to answer the questions! Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments, and have a happy Monday!

Cousins at the Zoo

Mom, Rachel, and I took Mia and Zoey to the Dallas Zoo on Saturday.  The girls love spending time together, and the weather was perfect for being outside.  The last time we took them was several months ago.  I think Zoey enjoyed it more this time since she is older now.  We saw almost everything including the new koala exhibit.  Mia and Zoey rode the carousel and had a pony ride.  Both girls got to ride a camel for the first time with their mommas.  I'm still not sure how I managed it, but I hauled my pregnant behind onto that camel because Mia was so excited to get to ride it.  There's not much I wouldn't do for that girl.  I'm so glad that I got to spend my Mother's Day weekend with my momma, sister, and niece.  Having them here with Wes, Mia, and I was great!

Yes, I know I look huge, but Mia had so much fun that I wanted to post a picture of her first camel ride.

To say that she was excited about riding the pony is an understatement.

 Giving a stinky goat some love...oh well!

 

Mimi's Camera

I got a hold of my mom's camera yesterday and downloaded some pictures onto my computer.  I like to see what pictures other people get even if I took some of my own at the same time.

Mia, Shayna, and Kaylee at the Arboretum in March.  Mia's expression cracks me up in the picture.

I love Kaylee's face when she realizes she just stuck her hand on bird poop!  Haha!

 Mia and her Mimi

Uncle Tim didn't want to be photographed carrying a purse.  He hid it behind his back when he detected that a camera was about to capture the moment.

  I hijacked a few Easter pics too.  Here I am 18 weeks pregnant with Quinn.

Ready to Decorate

I'm so excited that we are going to have a boy.  I've been daydreaming of action figures, dinosaurs, and all kinds of boy things.  All of Mia's stuff has been moved out of her old room.  She has taken up permanent residence in her "big girl" room.  She absolutely loves it.  I still need to buy new curtains for her room, so I'll post pictures after those are put up.  Looking around the empty nursery is weird (because I'm used to her things being there), but it's also exciting.  I just think of all of the possibilities for decorating the nursery to make it look totally different for Quinn.  I think we've settled on a theme, so I've been trying to look up coordinating artwork and such.  I shouted to the hills that we were most definitely not painting the room a different color, and I've stuck to that.  Partly because I like the color; partly because I refuse to inhale paint fumes while pregnant and did not want to demand that my sweet husband paint it by himself.  He would totally do it.  I'm so lucky to have a husband that would do pretty much anything I ask of him.  It did make choosing Quinn's bedding a little more challenging, but I'm more than happy with the result.  I've bought some clothes for Q, and now I'm ready to start getting his room decorated.

Last night right before bed, Mia said that she wanted to give Quinn a kiss.  She pulled up my shirt, kissed my belly, and said, "There ya go, Quinnie."  She spoke directly into my belly button.  I guess that's the only way he'll hear her.  Haha!  Then, she blew a raspberry on my belly button.  It made me laugh out loud.  She's so funny.  She patted my stomach twice, and then ran off.  That girl cracks me up.  I'm so glad that she's now excited about getting a baby brother.

Weekend Ramblings

We went down to Jefferson Blvd here in Oak Cliff on Saturday for the Cinco de Mayo parade.  We had never been to that parade, so we weren't sure what to expect.  It was a nice little parade but not as big as the OC Mardi Gras parade.  However, it was pretty hot, so we left a little early. 

After we got groceries that afternoon, we went to a drive through car wash to knock some of the dust off of our car.  Mia wasn't exactly afraid of the car wash, but she was definitely anxious.  She was covering her eyes most of the time (trying to be brave).

Today, Wesley helped Mia and I plant flowers.  Mia has been looking forward to it all week.  I bought her a princess gardening set that included princess gloves and a pink trowel.  She thoroughly enjoyed digging (and flipping and flinging) in the dirt.  I think she's pretty proud of her flowers.

Only got a couple of pictures at the parade

Showing off her candy loot

Not a big fan of the car wash 

Flower Power!